Travellers' ChecksNew book tells the billion-dollar Airbnb story; five-star hotels descend on Colombo

Read all about ‘How Three Ordinary Guys Disrupted an Industry, Made Billions’ in The Airbnb Story. Meanwhile, Mövenpick opens in Colombo, becoming first in a line of luxury hotels set to launch in Sri Lankan capital

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Adam Nebbs

Published: 7:02pm, 1 Feb 2017Updated: 7:02pm, 1 Feb 2017

Home truths The last time I paid to stay in a private home while travelling abroad was in 1989. I’d just spent the better part of a week on the Trans-Siberian Railway from Beijing and was met on a freezing Moscow station platform by my impoverished and rather grudging Soviet host. The absence of a bath or shower both on the train and in my temporary new home forced me to wash my feet (and not much else) in the bowl of a very old toilet, with a sugar-lump-sized cube of carbolic soap. Thus abluted – and having dried off with back issues of Pravda – I went to see the Bolshoi Ballet, determined to explore the homestay experience no further. Consequently, I never had much interest in using Airbnb, and probably never will, but for the many who do, a new book called The Airbnb Story lifts the lid on this multibillion-dollar business empire.

Written by Leigh Gallagher, an assistant managing editor at Fortune magazine, and subtitled How Three Ordinary Guys Disrupted an Industry, Made Billions ... and Created Plenty of Controversy, it will be available at amazon.com in hardcover and for Kindle on February 14. In the meantime, an introductory video and article can be found at fortune.com/airbnb-travel-mission-brand. Also take a look at comedian Adam Conover’s take on the downsides of Airbnb (below).

Forgotten capital The Mövenpick Hotel Colombo opened last month, claiming to be the Sri Lankan capital’s “first five-star hotel in 25 years”. That’s a remarkable gap for the capital city of a country that has seen tourist arrivals quadruple to more than two million over the past seven years, has long had a booming boutique-hotel scene and which regularly tops travel magazine and website must-visit polls.

The earlier five-star hotel referred to by Mövenpick is the now retro-style Hilton Colombo, which actually opened closer to 30 years ago, in September 1987. (The Mövenpick Hotel’s claim would have been accurate had it opened on time, in 2013.) As well as perceived widespread corruption, this three-decade luxury-hotel drought can be partly blamed on the country’s 1983-2009 civil war, and more international brands should be opening – also a few years late – in the city this year. A Sheraton is scheduled for June, a Shangri-La is slated for the third quarter and a Grand Hyatt might be open by December, although that’s been on the cards since 2003.